Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Blu-ray Today: Boxes of Halloween, Saw and The Exorcist

Halloween: The Complete Collection - Occasionally, very occasionally, a cinematic franchise will come along in which every entry has some merit, enough so that the entire series is worth buying. Almost never is that franchise in the horror genre, as this and some other entries today will show, and it's certainly not true for Halloween, which defined most of what we think of as the rules of slasher movies, only to keep following them by the numbers.

The first Halloween is a classic; the second an adequate sequel, the third a bonkers and unrelated story that makes no sense whatsoever. 4 and 5 are mediocre, 6 is crap, 7 is an adequate sequel and 8has Busta Rhymes saying "Trick or treat, motherfucker!" People bag on the two Rob Zombie remakes, but they at least tried to do something different. I stand by my position that a Rob Zombie remake of part 1 was preferable to a Part 9 with more Busta Rhymes.

The network TV edits of the first two movies are included, as is the "producers cut" of part 6 that apparently doesn't suck...but it seems this may contain only the unrated versions of the Rob Zombie films. Even if it does have both versions of each, this is hardly a "complete collection" - talks are currently in progress to make yet another installment in the series. Frankly, Season of the Witch is the one that could most benefit from a Rob Zombie remake, but I doubt they'll go that weird way again.

Exorcist: Complete Anthology - Doubly proving my point, this is a horror series where you really don't need to own more than the first installment, a classic many people will still tell you is the scariest film of all time. Yes, there are two different cuts, but they can be owned on the same disc already. Two misguided prequels that tell the same story different ways, and two sequels that vary from adequate to Worst Ever, depending on who you ask, don't make the ultimate Catholics vs. Demons movie any better. The only reason to own them all is misguided curiosity, and that should be satisfied by rentals at this stage. Each movie is also available separately.

Saw: The Complete Movie Collection - Here's how you get people to buy the whole series of films about righteous, ironic traps: 7 movies on 3 discs for less than $30, which is cheaper than buying just 1-3 (the good ones) alone. After the elaborate deathtrap-rigging toymaker John Kramer died in part 3, the subsequent movies tied themselves into knots trying to justify their own continued existence...but at least part VI seized on the zeitgeist and relished in the torment of health insurance executives.